


complex

by sol_writer



Category: Voltron - Fandom, Voltron: Legendary Defender, klance - Fandom
Genre: Bilingual Lance (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), College AU, Gay Keith (Voltron), Keith is a hot mess, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Klance Klance and Klance, Klance baby, Korean Keith (Voltron), M/M, Photographer Keith (Voltron), alternative universe, hunk is an angel, lance is a pretty boy, voltron !
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:35:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23236324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sol_writer/pseuds/sol_writer
Summary: dev·il/ˈdevəl/...When Lance bumps into a strange boy under a red hue of LED lights at a party, he becomes conflicted because he doesn’t recognize this person. Comparing the boy to Lances own metaphors, This random boys first impression sticks with him. Soon Lance finds out there’s a famous new upcoming photographer looking for some inspiration in the City. Shortly, Lance is introduced to a friend of Shay’s (hunks new.. friend) —why did this boy remind Lance of a devil!?Read Complex to find out!
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron), Klance - Relationship, Lance/Keith (Voltron)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27
Collections: Klance (Voltron)





	1. Chapter 1

temptation begins once it’s out of his grasp, out of his reach. the bitter feeling of not having something whenever he wants to, sits on his tongue, it’s bitter— filthy. makes him feel sour and his stomach swirls into a tornado of dissatisfaction, quickly turning into a tsunami and a wave of anger pouring over him. it was revolting.

he was 11 then. He’s just been pampered all his life, and at 11 he came to the realization what that disgusting feeling was. 

lance is selfish, was , and will always be. what’s his is his, and that’s how it will be, he likes what he likes, will take what he likes. he will tear what is his, ruin the beauty of beauty if he wanted, if he so desired to, have it be.— for it was simple! beauty is a concept lance only knew of. perfection is something he only knew of. absolutely power over others was something he only knew of. The sweet taste of satisfaction is what he only knows of. 

Lance mcclain is not a loser, he’s a winner. he’s number one, one and only. he was kissed furiously, passionately by aphrodite, blessed by a god— some said, others said it was sinister, a demons way of fooling everyone into its trickery, his beauty beyond reality, he sold his soul for internal prettiness? who knew, all lance knew was he was special, didn’t care where he got it. he was special and that’s all that mattered. Never really understood it all till he hit sophomore year, so before then he just rolled with it. 

and although! Lance,. had always got what he wanted, i mean come on. he was gorgeous (their words not his, as he would remind people when he introduced himself to others) his blue eyes were lovely, one of a kind . his dark tan, even lustrous skin constructed a higher form of a rare beauty, sun kissed by apollo himself! wonderful toned body, not too much fat, but enough to make sure that he didn’t look like a walking skeleton. small muscles wrapped around his biceps, his legs were thin ,slender, curved prettily.— legs of someone who didn’t know hardworking, one who hasn’t had to use them because all his affairs were done for him! beauty, he was the absolute definition of beauty. Everyone knew he was pretty, even the girls who he had broken hearts of..intentionally or other, boys who had a bad past with him, angry that lance has affected them and didn’t care! people who were absolutely astonished, intimidated by the aura he had the ability to carry none of them didnt dare go against the fact that Lance Mcclain was most definitely a pretty little thing, and they hated him for it. lots hated him for it. 

but they adored him.

and as long as he was adored, lance could go about his day without a worry on the mind. he could walk along a broken bridge, and because he was so mystical, luck sided with him. he could jump off that rickety bridge that when even looked at , small chips of wood fly off and drop stories and stories to the ground, that, theoretically if that chip of wood were a person, would be killed instantly, in a gruesome, gory depressing end. but oh were the odds always in his favor, that drop wouldn’t ever harm him, no in fact .hed probably fall to a small cliff, and land with only a scratch, but maybe not even that!  
and it was so magical, lance that is. He was blessed,.

Lance ,couldn’t be held down, no. he holds people down! now, just because he could almost manipulate or “convince” (something he’d rather refer to) people into doing certain things for him, doesn’t mean he’s ever took advantage of it. because not only does he have to stay pretty outside but pretty inside. consider him a perfect pretty boy!  
now what was the perfect pretty boy doing on this saturday evening? bored out of his mind, the sound of mario carts, sound effects going through one ear and out the other? why nothing! absolutely nothing, so what was he going to do.? do something! 

“hunk” lance starts off, he turns over to his best friend since the 6th grade.

hunk doesn’t reply just after his name is called, hunk pauses the game then holds the cigarette to his lips longer, sucks in then let’s the thing pull away and his breath drags out, then hums. 

“let’s go somewhere”  
for a while lance has been trying to get his friend out! who’s been inside, cozied, depressed and reeking of 5 day old no shower-sweat, cigarette smoke. 

“mm..no i don-“

“come on, u can’t stay trapped in here forever”

“oh i can-“

“i know.” Lance says firmly. “i know you can, i don’t want you to” he presses his ‘want’ hard. hunk rests his head back and slowly turns his head, sad eyes stare into lance’s.

he’s such a puppy

he hands the cigarette to lance but he just takes it, puts it out and grimaces as he wipes his hands on his shorts. throwing the bud on the table cigarettes are nasty, he doesn’t know how or why anyone would ever smoke such a thing.

it brought back memories, whether it was just the simple stench of it. or the butt of it on the ground — short and stubby stepped on and worn out. he hated it.

“hunk.” they stare at eachother, lance narrows his eyes.

“fine.” hunk says, with a puff. And there, hunk gives up, because even if hunk still had energy to protest— lance would have even more. because hunk knows lance wouldn’t give up on him, and he knows that Lance won’t give up, ,not in his nature. because lance— the youngest of many siblings knows how to get his way, because lance knows there are few people who could wreck hunks spirit, so he’ll work hard.because lance knows that hunk knows that’s he’s special to him, that he won’t give up on the only person who has his back for everything. 

lance smiles and gets up. he sighs.

“for a college student and major in engineering— you sure are an immature baby sometimes”

hunk just moans and groans. 

what a baby!  
+———+

it’s dark, it’s sticky with sweat. it’s loud though, it’s distracting and it’s wild. he loves it.  
loves the burning sensation he feels when he shoots down a shot, loves the feeling of it traveling down the pipe and swirling around in his stomach. Feels heat at the pit of his stomach, and he slowly regrets not eating before drinking. but it’s fine,

it’s fine because he loves the distracted smile of hunks face, loves that hunk isnt thinking her, he loves that everyone’s eyeing them, trying to listen to their conversation— even though it’s loud— some rap song playing, dimmed violet LED lights hung from the corner of the room. violet, no.. more like blue now that lance focuses in. and they’re seated, but surrounded as if they were out dancing on the dance floor. and it’s amazing. he always feels like such a celebrity.

“i told you!” lance yells just over the music, hunk shoots him a drunk smile, hazy, brown cheeks flushed— sad eyes. because he is still thinking about her. Lance’s arm tenses but it relaxes when Hunk replies.

“thanks man!” he screams over, even though his eyes are worn, gratification sparkles in his eyes, even for just a moment.

hunk cracks a couple jokes over with a couple girls lance’s charm seemed to fish from the sea of people. Lance gives out meaningless compliments, he’s in it for the fun, nothing serious. nothing is real right now, and he hopes they now that. Besides he’s not here for his own pleasure, He’s here for the only person Lance cares about. But then again, doesn’t hurt to mess around right?  
right now, it’s lance and hunk, best friend since 6th. right now it’s lance, he’s pretty, he’s there for fun. he’s there to help get numb with someone— because lance is pretty and he’s taking out his best friend because some whore broke his heart, because he hated her anyways because she hurt him, because she took hunks time away from lance, because she took the only person he trusted away, because hunk didn’t want to but she forced him. because lance was lonely, and he’d make any excuse to go party somewhere anyways, because lance has never been heart broken, he thinks atleast— so he doesn’t know how to handle this “normally” atleast, So he mixes what he knows about Hunk and mixes what he sees other people do when they’re heartbroken and takes him out, out to eat then out to a random party— not random really since Lance is on good terms with the host, really, good terms— psychical good terms. sensual terms. 

shut up, Lances brain voice says to him. Or more like to himself? since they’re..? whatever he’s getting dizzy.

He wonders how many hearts he’s broken, what do they do after. But it’s not like he cares, he’s just curious.

and he and hunk take a shot, and then another, and hunk starts talking to a girl, and he’s nervous because he starts digging his nails into his palm in his is left pocket, since she’s standing on his right .and he lets out a nervous laugh. 

oh boy

so lance leans over and starts hyping up hunks achievements, but she doesn’t seem to care about that— she stares into his eyes, honestly. Her face is relaxed, gentle, she has big brown eyes that reminded Lance of a small puppy, He kinda laughs in his head because she’s innocent! Doesn’t seem to have ill intentions and if Lance was some other person he would have said she was just normal, but her shoulders rise and drop quicker than the girl’s standing next to her, Lance doesn’t really take more time to analyze because hunk is so nervous he starts tugging on his shirt, but it’s okay because she noticed and then pretends not to. because she seems as out of place as hunk felt earlier. Their shoulders rise and drop in sync and Lance mocks them and tells them to calm down. They both awkwardly laugh and then freeze and laugh harder.  
Lance likes her because Hunk likes her, so they continue to pull jokes and drink together and Lance notices them lean closer gradually over the time they’ve been sittin together.

and lance knows this  
because lance inspects everyone else.

soon hunk disappears but it’s fine, because hunk was in the military and he is an able man, able to self defense before they even touched him, because hunk is cautious, because hunk shot a nod over to lance before taking the girl outside the room, who’s name he caught but it slipped out of his mind, shuy? no shoe..? no no. shay-

lance bumps into someone, and his rib feels a sting and it stays there— like a slash of pain , like a line of scar. it throbs but he ignores it

“hey.” he says, but he focuses and he sees dark eyes already staring, and a cold breeze must of ran through the room because a shiver is sent down his spine. the dark eyes inspect, they look as if they’re calculating something, like they’re reading something on his face. and there’s people looking over, he heard someone ask if it’s a fight and he can because the music changed now it’s something sad, but the beat soon drops and the man singing sounds sad and in love and— damn it.

“my bad..” lance is able to hear it which is surprising because it was brief and now the boy in a red is walking around him and he shoves his shoulder, which is on accident because there wasn’t anything aggressive behind it, but now that he thinks about it, there maybe was.

“h-hey. hey man!” lance turns into a full 360 and walks after the boy, his mind is wandering, trying to find any sort of memory or any type of thing he had on this kid, like looking through his brain and trying to find a file out of the many he has.But there’s nothing. he’s never seen him, which is surprising because just as much as he’s looked at— he looks back. because he analyzes so much that he could figure out a lot of things about a person who could be standing there.

and the boy looks over his shoulder, sharp jaw, skin is fair he’s pale, narrow eyes, his eyes.. what colour are they? lance makes a mental note of that but instantly drops it because why was he even making a note about that..? the red LED lights shine off this mystery boy’s face, when did they even turn red, weren’t they blue? but the colour of the lights isn’t what catches his interest, it’s just how good he looks in the blood like hue.

and he waits so lance can get closer. and fuck why is he even calling him out he doesn’t have anything to say to him, what the hell.

and soon he reaches the boy in red, and he reaches out and pushes him.  
“watch where you’re going darling.” lance says, words slither out like a snake, but something attacks his python words, makes him fumble . doesn’t know if he tripped over his words or something or maybe there was something on his face because the boy gives him a crooked smile, no a smirk. but his eyes, they’re dark and deep and lance feels like he’s falling. and he feels insecure and what?? must’ve been the drinks.

“hey i get you’re pretty (The boy looks down at the hand on him but then darts them back at Lance’s) but don’t touch me” lances stomach twists. the boy swats lances hand away , and he quickly grabs lances wrist and squeezes it. fuck, his hand is cold—his fingers wrap and his nails dig into his veins

and lance feels like that cold breeze is back again, but damn it’s hot in here right?? or is that just him. he gulps.

“what’s your name kid”

How did he even get the courage to say that. 

the boys eyes narrow, and lance soon feels naked— and he feels sick to his stomach and yucky. must’ve been the drinks.

“names are dangerous, if you’re not careful they fall into the wrong mouths— but you know that right lance “

and that stupid song drops another beat, he can’t process the words of the song because right now he feels like words and whispers and stares and everything is swirling around his head and revolving around his brains so fast, and the way his name is said?  
it’s like whiplash. his name said in a way it seemed like a curse word, made him feel like someone was holding him at gun point. made his blood run cold and his pulse speed up, he didn’t know whether or not he liked it. like he said, must’ve been the drinks.

“hey. what’s going on here.”

god he feels like the drinks are attempting to climb out of his stomach and jump out of his mouth. 

and soon lances hand falls and it tingles and how hard was he even squeezing? . and they’re still looking into eachother eyes, no the boy in red and pulled back hair was staring into lances eyes— lance was just trapped, eyes like glass. 

“what’s going on here.— what the hell are you doing messing around, with— oh. oh! lance!”

and lance recognizes the voice but he doesn’t stop his stare, but the boy does.  
“whatever.” and he turns and walks away

“lance! hey, was he messing with you— do i need to go afte-“

“no” lance says and after watching the boys red back for a second more, he looks away, he looks at Darren with soft eyes. no not really not soft, annoyed, agitated glossed over with blue porcelains.  
“no, it’s okay”  
and lance glances back in the direction the boy went off in, but no longer spotted him in the crowd. it’s as if he was never there because there’s no trace of him ever standing in front of lance. the only thing tying him to reality was the feeling in his gut, adrenaline probably, But his interest in the mystery sparked. the still lingering of the tingling sensation his numb hand had reminded him he was still here, he slowly grounds himself. he flexes his arm.

and the only thing he can think of was, no it wasn’t the drinks.

and the song finished a while ago, ended as he watched the boy in red walk away now that he thinks about it.But the rhythm and beat, the sorrow and anger of it replays, in an unrecognized way. 

his eyes were black. there was no colour to them, like coal— ashes. burnt crisps, murky black water.  
lance was drowning, in the pollution of his eyes. 

how weird that it wasn’t the drinks.

+——-+  
“you like that—? hm? like my big cock in your little pretty ass”

oh god shut up, lance wants to say. he doesn’t because all he wants right now is to cum, and he might have to do it himself because darren’s dick wasn’t doing it. hasn’t for a while.

lance reaches over, with his left hand holding him up, his head dipped into the mattress— he reaches over and grabs ahold of himself and jerks off.

music plays, it’s faint but it’s still there. the bed creaks and creaks and it’s quite annoying.

“pretty boy” darren kisses his shoulder blade and lance rolls his eyes, grateful he can’t be seen.  
and soon he feels his stomach knot, and almost almost— and yes. there ! 

lances back arches and he feels warmth drip down his thigh, and he wipes his hand on the bed. feels darren grunt one more time before he exists lance, and sits up. how desperate was he for another quick fuck, whatever.

he reaches over to grab his phone and lays down . he sideeyes darren as he pulls his boxers up and lays down next to him.

12:10am hunk:  
I took shay home, do you need me to pick you up? 

shit  
what time was it?  
1:37 am. and lance gets up, the bed creaks again except this time not because he’s getting fucked in the ass. 

he grabs his boxers, and slips them on— he’s still sticky but he doesn’t care he just wants to go home

“leaving already..?” darren’s disappointed, but it’s nothing that lance cares about— so he ignores it. he grabs a tissue and wipes as much liquid as he can see, it’s not bothering him so he’ll leave the rest up for future lance to worry about. grabs his undergarments.

“wear a condom next time” lance mumbles and puts his foot in the other leg hole of his shorts pulls them up and slips his belt through the loops but leaves it.

“hey i asked you something—lance stop acting like this. i.” he stumbles over his words and lance can already feel the tension rising and he hates it. 

“acting like what” his mind is fuzzy so he’ll do the easiest thing right now, he pretends to act dumb and he goes over and puts his button up on but doesn’t button it.

“lance. stop acting like you don’t care. what. what are we”

he tucks his shirt inside his shorts and proceeds to buckle his belt. it clinks , the metal on metal action kinda eases his annoyance ,at least a bit. it swatted away some negative energy and lowered the temperatures a bit.

“lance. i’m talking to you.” hes getting desperate, and lance takes this observation to heart 

“lance!”

he grabs his phone and keys, and he lied. the stickiness does bother him. he glares at the wall and then sighs.

“darren. darling” he swallows the annoyance and walks over to him, soon he’s pinning darren down on the bed. he leans down into his ear and whispers

“you’re my toy, nothing more” and he knows it’s venom, he knows he poisoned him through words. and he knows that if words could kill well damn, call him a mass murderer.

but darren knew of their games, how lance doesn’t care about anyone, was he expecting him to be different? what? how selfish.  
lance leans back up, stares into darren’s eyes, they’re brown— reminded him of burnt sugar, reminded him of cigars and tree bark. not dark coal. hm. doesn’t even realize his quick comparison and drops it.

lance smiles innocently, but behind it knows that innocence was nothing lance knew of, lance knew he was a devil and guess what? darren and many others made pacts with him, swore skin to skin, promised lips to lips, lied touch through touch, it’ll always be like that.

but there wasn’t anything lance or anyone could do. Lance is toying with him at this point, lance knows that darren isn’t important, darren is a nobody! , but darren doesn’.t, because darren is under lances spell, darren is under the impression that sweet loveboy lance is just a sweet loveboy— not the cold jerk lance really is, nope nope.. lance gets up and walks to the door, picking his shoes up and before he walks out he says 

“until you get your act up, don’t call me.”  
and then he walks out and god was that a pain but he doesn’t care because this is the 3rd time it’s happened, and darren will come back maybe Tuesday, or wednesday, probably next friday because it’s his birthday. lance doesn’t know exactly when but he’ll be back. they always are.

“hey.. hunk! my mannnn come get me— o- yes my ass hurts so hurry up and get me before i walk hom— fine fine . heh. how was shay? “

+——-+

his eyes were dark, and his face was illuminated by red LED lights, and he held a devils stare or something. which is weird because, no one could pull the whole devil metaphor off better than lance could.  
and lance laughs to himself

“the devil..”he mumbles, at this point Lance has made it an inside joke. 

something about it bothers him though, he can’t shake up the feeling he felt in his gut, what even was that? it probably just replays in his head because he didn’t know the guy right? yeah definitely, no big deal. devils don’t even exist. It’s just a dumb metaphor Lance created for himself, he leaves it at that because he can’t bother with it right now— studying for exams is kicking his ass.

“wha—?” hunk says, well more like tries to atleast. because he has a burrito in his mouth.

“que no comes con comida en tu boca” lance says. knowing hunk has been around him so as much to pick up on simple phrases. lance smiles just in case so he doesn’t seem so on edge but he is serious— well half joking— half serious. Talking with your mouth full is a choking hazard.

“yeah yeah” 

+——+

devils don’t exist.


	2. Chapter 2

it’s cold.  
Lance begins to feel itchy, but he doesn’t know where to scratch— like there’s something that makes his flesh ache but he can’t put his finger on what, he’s starting to get annoyed, well not starting. he’s been annoyed, frustrated. He slips his phone back into his jacket pocket for the fourth time in 12 minutes, no, now 13 minutes. It’s 12:24, and it’s thursday. March 12. Days have past, but not a bit of memory of those days seeps into his brain. In fact he doesn’t realize how much time has past by, and right now time and him are at war.

“mm how much longer...” 

he whispers under his breath. His knee bounces up and down furiously and he looks over peoples shoulders, out the windows from the back and front glass doors but nothing. He even looks over his shoulder, he quickly catches the eye of some stranger but they both at the same time lose their interest in eachother and continue to what they were doing before. He strains his neck a little much and he relaxes and faces down at the table , rubbing his palm down his throat. 

He’s been waiting for Shay and Hunk for a while, And usually he’s not one to be impatient, but his stress began to build up ever since his fight with Darren. Not because he misses the guy, no well, only because he was the only hookup in his area. He could call Mathew or Sam if he’d like but Darren was the closest, and he just didn’t feel like taking the car out and driving for more than 20 minutes for a play date. Especially when light snow still piled the streets, watery lanes with icy fields. He was especially cautious when it was wet out. 

“i swear.. i’m gonna kill this guy....”

(This guy, being Hunk)  
But he has no right complain so much, more like at all actually because he voluntarily came way earlier than needed to. They were being expected at 1 – oops. But you can’t blame him either! He was bored! 

He takes a sip of his coffee, ignoring the fact that it had gotten cold over the time he was here. But couldn’t deny that the lukewarm sweet milk calmed his nerves, the smell of vanilla and cinnamon dances around the public building. Low chattering and distant clattering of cups, hums of the machines mixing, spurts of the whip cream bottles, a coin falls on the ground near the cashiers behind his table and it rolls and then lands and ring-around-the-rosies with the floor before someone steps on it and the sound automatically disappears, someone says “sorry about that” and then low voices continue near the register.

It’s a slow day, but a few cars still drive by— so you can hear the wheels rolling on the wet roads and when they stop the cars low humming fills the empty streets. Downtown was lovely, but it was dead because it was cold. unfavorable conditions, it was wet and cold and everything that should be alive wasn’t. Lance hated the rain. Hated the snow, Disliked anything wet and clingy. So he’d rather stay inside, where it’s warm and sweet.

He hasn’t thought much about the few days ago at the party, he won’t lie that every now and then he’ll still wonder about it but he won’t overthink it as much anymore. Considering how he just wants to brush it off, doesn’t want to fully analyze the panic he genuinely felt and would rather pretend it didn’t happen than confront it. wow what a great strategy Lance . anyways he has too much on his platter these days.  
He looks at the time again, but instead he looks over at the flat screen, versus his phone. At the corner of some interview it says 12:32 pm, March 12, 34°.

Without thinking as much, his eyes fall back to the center of the screen and he listens in.  
There isn’t a face, but they are interviewing a person. An outline at least, The background is red, dark red. It’s a lovely shade actually. With subtitles at the bottom of the screen.The voice of the interviewed person is modified too, unless someone’s voice sounds naturally exactly like a robotic macho man that is. The thought is stupid but it makes me quietly laugh to himself.

He holds his styrofoam cup and wraps both of his hands around it and his thumb (absentmindedly) runs up and down the small paper that has his name written with his order. There was a phone number on it too, but after a while of him getting hit on, he grew to just ignore it but it did make his day a little less uptight. Reminding him that he was an attractive person and that he shouldn’t be so stressed , besides that causes wrinkles.

“do you have anything special planned, perhaps a theme for this year? especially since you’re here from korea for the exhibition, plan on taking advantage of the city?” 

“I plan on doing something different.. i’d rather not spoil anything, but it’ll take quite a bit of time— I came here to find new inspiration but I haven’t found anything yet, hopefully I find what i’m looking for.. soon”

The interviewer chuckles and Lance, without realizing he rested his chin on his palm ,cocks his head. That last part of the interviewed person’s sentence sticks with him, considering how it wasn’t questioned — it bothers him.

“how long do you plan on staying in the city? Is it solely for photography— or do you plan on taking advantage of the area?”

The person pauses. and then after a few moments speaks.  
“For about two months, until the exhibition that is, and who knows maybe if I fall in love with Chicago— i might stay longer” 

The interview chuckles again and the silhouette of the person being interviewed laughs along. forcibly at least. They sound serious and seem to be socially awkward because of how timid, how non-confident this photographer is..

“you’ve slowly built up your career, but you’ve only recently been recognized, before you were known as the son of the president of the world-wide company— Marmoa Blade. you especially sky rocketed after moving to korea.. what 4 years ago?, what brought you here? I hear that you’re from texas too! ”

“yes that’s correct..”

“i see!” 

The interview sounds thrilled, it makes Lance wonder if the interviewer has some deep connection to Texas, but after taking account to the Lady’s voice he could detect a well hidden souther accent. How cute.

“i’ve never been here before, but recently my brother married and moved here, i took it as advantage as well. It gives me a chance to spread my wings, I hear chicago is lovely, and so far i believe it. A close colleague of mine is here helping me get used to it as well.”

Lance conveniently forgets the mention of Marmoa Blade.

“i take it as you’ll be exploring your surroundings, searching for that new inspiration?”

“precisely..”

“seems like there’s new meat here...” Lance mumbles, amused. Lance had ways and connections, he wasn’t worried about that. What he was worried about what who exactly was behind the screen, a face he couldn’t see but he feels drawn to find out more. The problem is how would he even come to meet a photographer.

It’s not like Lance is new to the celebrity industry either. he comes from a long line of well known people. It’s not something he brags about. Because yes he is a narcissistic fuck and would rather be known through his own abilities. Ofcourse he could ask Veronica, his sister, who is also a pretty high end model. But she’s in cuba again— and they aren’t on the best terms at the moment. Tiptoe around the phrase, as the moment, because they’ve haven’t been on good terms since Lance turned 11. Hes 21. They hated eachother, but once Lances interest in something— especially in something so big like a new celebrity, he’d might have to be able to be in debt to his older sister. 

The interview goes on commercial break but Lance isn’t patient enough to wait for it to tune back to find out who this person is exactly. A barista shuffles by and Lance quickly calls for them.

“excuse me! Do you know who the photographer being interviewed is?” He throws in a cheeky grin and bats his lashes at the blonde.

“ahh.. on the tv?”

“mmhmmmm” Lance kinda sing-hums.

The girl let’s out a laugh, she runs her hands through her hair and she squeaks.   
“um.. i um, His name is K I think, i, sorry”  
She’s stumbling and stuttering . She drops her hands and starts cracking them and tugging at them. Her shoulders are tense, his eyes dance over to her name tag— Vanessa.

‘how precious’   
Lance can’t help but think, He smiles and takes a sip out of his drink. Noting that she wasn’t the one to make it for him but he can’t help but adore her reactions so he definitely will order from her when Shay and Hunk arrive. 

With Hunk and Shay in mind he thanks the shy barista, brushes her out of his hair and looks over at the screen again,

12:39pm

How far were they? The middle of downtown wasn’t that pact, it wasn’t nice outside at all and the traffick shouldn’t be terrible. He wonders if they’re on their way, ofcourse they’re not really expected for another half hour. He needs to stop. He rests his chin on his palm and slumps in his chair, now wasn’t the time to throw some kind of tantrum. So he’ll have to wait like a good boy, and wait for another half hour.

Soon the interview shows back up after a commercial for tictacs. 

“Thank you for being here K, your presence was very much appreciated. I myself and many other will be looking forward to see you at the exhibition. Hopefully I can get another opportunity to talk with you”

“I’ll look forward to it too, Thank you for having me”

“And with that, we wrap up this interview with a final message from Me, I’m Mellissa Harris and tune in-“

After that, Lance doesn’t listen anymore, he’s known for having selective hearing— or at least known to have it by people he doesn’t favor in the slightest. So pushing a simple television show out of his brain was simple enough. Soon he blocks out every sound, everything around him feels like jelly and time seems to have stopped.

. He slowly watched the outline disappear from the flatscreen but could still see the Ladies mouth moving, and he frowns. But quickly he grabs his phone and starts to research. Things still feel like jelly and he felt like he was going to melt through his chair right now, splash over the floor and sink into the floorboards. Was there any drugs in the coffee or something? Hopefully there isn’t because he pushes it to the back of his brain and lets it get locked in a box.

It’s been a while, long while that anyone ‘famous’ has came here. Ofcourse, Chicago is a big city— Some chick even named her child after it. Nevertheless it doesn’t shock him that a photographer would come here, it’s pretty. Big buildings, Lovely scenery especially at night when the lights are lit and it looks like millions of stars hovering over lake Michigan.

He has no idea what to look for but he searches   
‘k photograpet’

and ignores that he misspelled photographer because he quickly finds results. Surprised by this, Lance scrolls.

“Two killed in a car accident, k projects visits Chicago, and more..” - march 10

“Chicago, K...” -March 9

“who exactly is K...?” - March 7

“Famous Birthdays, K..” - March 2

“K and his relationship with his Mother, President of Marmoa Blade.. New inside information..” - February 28

“KG or K...?..” - January 23

“Fire, Hea....”- October 2

“The accident of Heath Koga...” -October 2

But before he gets the chance to further his research, His phone rings.  
Darrons name sits at the corner of the screen, His face with Lance’s , Both squished together , They’re both smiling,it shows up in a circle at the top right.  
A photo they took about 8 months ago— when they were just friends. Ofcourse they are friends now right? 

Friends with benefits, the title is a bit messy i guess . Lance sighs. Although he’s pleased, he’s annoyed at how long it took for him to crawl back. His little atmosphere of jelly soon comes to a pop and every feeling of calmness seeps out of his bubble. 

“hello.”

“Hey, Lance.”

Lance could tell he was probably thinking about what he’d say, Darrons voice becomes deeper when he’s serious. The pitch in his voice becomes clearer and Lance could already tell that Darron isnt coming to apologize.

“ Is there something I can help you with?”

Lance sasses. Lance is already catching an attitude, He holds his cup tighter, and he wish he had a hot drink now instead of the cold one he has. because now he could really go for a hot drink burning his throat, his esophagus as it goes down to his belly would really set in the mood of uncomfortable feelings.

“Listen.. Can we talk”

“Darron, I told you al-“

“Fine. I’ll just tell you here”

Lance’s words are cut off, And he’s a bit distraught. Never has Darron been so upfront, When their little hookups began it was Lance who made the first move— Because Darron was inexperienced. He had the pleasure of teaching Darron every little step of the way, That’s why he’s been so patient with him. Because Lance has been crafting Darron to be the perfect toy for him and it sounds terrible but Lance couldn’t help it. 

He could be a better person but Lance isn’t. His morals are all over the place, Lance was spoiled, he’s a brat, and no one can tame him. Which is why Darrons intentions, on this phone call right now are pissing him off. Lance isn’t getting his way and he’s getting mad.

“then just tell me. I don’t have all day.”

Lance’s voice is starting to raise, some old man peeks over from his newspaper and stares directly at him. But He quickly turns back when Lance shares the same gaze. 

“ I want to stop “

“what..?”

“Lance i’m in lov-“

“Darron.”

And there he goes, He keeps fucking up everything Lance has built up, Darron is trying to crumble the wall that He’s put up. And He’s never been angrier. Lance runs his hand back up his neck and his fingers lighth scratch and trail his nape. 

“Lance see. You treat me. You treat me so unfair. You won’t even let me say what i have to say!”

And now He’s screaming bloody murder over the phone, If lance didn’t have his airpods in and had the phone to his ear instead, he swore that everyone would have heard him. Darrons always had a short temper, when they first met— through one of Lance’s exs. She’d tell him all the time they’d fight over petty things, how he’d throw and scream and never has Lance experienced it— well, not having to since Darron has never been angry with Lance. Or atleast angry to the point of screaming and getting physical.

“ I told you, That we won’t ever go there. I. won’t go there.”

“Why are you like this! Why do you suck the life out of everyone!”

he is not holding back now is he, Lance is speachless but he feels offended, well not really because it’s not like Darrons lying.. But come on! you didn’t have to point it out.

“what are you eve-? ugh. you know what” Lance looks over at the clock at the corner of the room. “we’ll just stop, we’re done.”

“You fucking bet we are!”

Darrons sobbing over the phone. 

How embarrassing right? he’s 25 and acts like he’s in gradeschool. Lance flushes that thought out of his brain because one, he shouldn’t make fun of someone upset and two, This isn’t the time to laugh, even though Lance is getting uncomfortable and he might laugh in response to this.

Goddamn Lance MCclain you’re the worst aren’t you?

He’s screaming and its seconds before He starts throwing stuff. Lance can hear tables being knocked down. Wood being slammed against, Somethings thrown against the wall, He assume its a laptop or something small , flimsy but sturdy. 

“Darron.”

“If you continue you like this, You’re going to be alone! I swear Lance, You’ll never find anyone because no one. no one! is good enough for you! Mr.fucking perfect!”

“Da—“

“Fuck you Lance! Whatever hell storm fucking comes for you, you deserved it! Karma“

Lance needs to calm him down atleast, because all this screaming is making his stomach turn. He won’t lie and say he doesn’t deserve it, because Darrons right— even if it sounds cocky no one is enough for him, he can’t be a decent human being and he’ll admit— he will deserve it. But like he said, he’d rather run from it and pretend that his world is perfect. His little utopia of perfection, his haven of lies— things are swept under the carpet like dust bunnies and forget about. Play dumb— Like always, pretty boy.

“What are you talki- stop throw-“

“no! no! no!”

Lance gets up. chair screeching against the floor, his jacket floats a bit due to the air suddenly pushing back. Some people look over their shoulders, but soon pay back to what they were doing. Other follow him as He walks out the door and steps outside. He feels their eyes burn holes behind his back, he doesn’t pay attention to it, because— he’s gotten used to being watched. The attention, good and bad.

The air isn’t cold, But when the wind blows it bites his skin. Birds chirp, unaware that someone is literally tearing their room apart over the phone. Why couldn’t Lance be a bird sometimes, fly away and feel the wind in his bird—face. Spread his wings over the city and at night, stay silent, but when dawn breaks— he would sing and sing and fly and repeat his little cycle. 

“Darron.”

It’s quiet now, but loud pants are heard, Sobs crack and the phone goes in and out. 

“Lance..”

“what?”

“You’re going to be alone forever. You don’t have the ability to make anyone happy.. and when you fall for someone..”

“what are yo—“ 

“when you find that person Lance.. Man.. I hope they tear open your heart. Rip your rotted heart into shreds.”

“Can you sto—“

“go to hell Lance Mcclain.”

and it ends, The call ends and Lance stands there, dumbfounded. Alone. A truck drives by, with cucumbers and lettuce, tomato and other fruits and other vegetables printed on its side, It hums. dark smoke rises from the trucks many different tunnels. It goes into the sky and blends with the dark clouds already painting over buildings. The engine is loud, like it’s mocking him— taunting him that some things were out of his control.

The birds chirp more, they sing and sing and Lance is human. Not a bird.   
Because if he was a bird he wouldn’t be standing outside of a coffee shop in the middle of the city, cold, Have a phone to ear with no one on the other line. He wouldn’t be staring ahead, blankly.

He feels indifferent. And so what if he wasn’t a bird, Birds need birds and Humans need Humans and it’s not different. 

But it is, because Lance felt dislocated from everything, Like a curse has been put on him— he usually puts the spells on all the boys and girls. But something feels different, something bad is going to happen— and Lance is pretty optimistic on life— because he has everything. But something is coming. He feels it in the wind, feels it when the truck is out of sight and the birds somehow stop singing, as if they’re aware that somethings coming. Feels like time stopped for a second, he can’t hear the world alive, like the world and everything on it stopped breathing— usually used to the feeling of it, like being the only person in the world. For about 3 seconds everything seemed to have froze and it made Lance too aware of everything. But this time it’s dreadful. He can feel the earth drag the energy out of his body. The discomfort sits with him.

“you don’t have to remind me.”   
Lance mumbles. He pulls his phone away from his ear. He stares ahead of him, yet his eyes can’t focus on anything— can’t make up a single object. He stares and stares but can’t truly see anything. Lance presses his free hand to his cheek and slides it over his parted lips.   
It’s only when he hears a familiar voice does he snap out of his trance .

“Lance what are you doing outside ..”

Lance jerks up, Hunks face is flushed— he’s walks and two other people follow behind him.

“Hunk..?” he blinks. “oh what time is it, wh.. what took you so long” His band drops and his brows furrow.

“what do you mean.. we’re early”

Lance looks down at his phone  
12:59. The dark screen lights up, They’re literally 20 seconds early, so hunk saying “we’re here early” was a bit of a stretch. whatever. it didn’t matter, his mind feels like it’s grabbing every thought in his brain and forcibly shoving everything in ONE single box and locking it all up even though everything is overflowing. 

Hunk rubs his hands and then brings them, cupped to his face before he blows on them.  
“i thought we’d be late because we went to pick u- hey you don’t have your jacket on lance— you’re going to get sick dude“ He says, concerned.

Lance looks down and realizes Hunk was right, no wonder the air hitting him felt different.   
“oh..”

“ Jeez, let’s go inside..”

They settle inside and Lance is too distracted to notice the that Hunk didn’t sit next to him, but someone definitely takes the seat beside him, but the air around him doesn’t warm up and the hairs at the ends of his neck rises up. Hunk sits in front of him and shay takes a wooden chair and sits next to him.

“what were you doing outside?” Shay asks, she slips her gloves off and held her hands to her face. She’s prettier than Lance remembers. This time she isn’t wearing makeup unlike at the party near the boys dorms. Her light brown eyes, Light. Reminding him of warm untouched sand— on a beach. A warm sandy colour, dark tan skin— She has freckles dashed over her face like the pebbles on that beach. 

She had such a comforting gaze, She looked at Lance worriedly— big round eyes, soft skin, plump lips and it was simple as to see why Hunk fell for her fast. She was lovely. An angelic being that blessed them honestly. And lance doesn’t usually give out honest compliments, whether in his brain or outloud.

Lance frowns. He quickly drops his eye contact with her before she gets uncomfortable.  
“well.. kinda had a fight with darron”

“who?” Shay looks over at Hunk and Hunk looks over at her, unfazed. 

“Lance’s friend” He says, monotonous. Like Nothing about it sounded less than average, made it sound like a simple walk in the park. A fucking stroll. 

“yeah well ex- friend.. since he wants to be so dramatic” Lance groans, annoyed. He grabs his sweater and slips it on, bumping his elbow into someone.

“oh my ba—“

Dark eyes already staring back, and his shoulders tense. He feels his heart rate picks up and he knows this because he feels his heart thumping even through the thick sweater he’s wearing, could hear the drumming of it in his own eats. Could of swear that the table could hear his heartbeat, and maybe if they focused deeper in his movements could seen that his heartbeat was slowly making his body beat with it.

“no-uh , dont worry about i’. ” His voice rasps back.

Lance’s eyebrows furrow. He knows who this is, come on lance come on! His name? Something, his brain was probably all fuzzy but something was telling him this wasn’t a first encounter.

But nothing, his mind stays blank. But he has a feeling he’s seen this person, and that bothers him because it’s just like that boy from the party. Something about not recognizing people pisses him off, which is why he tried best to forget about that incident with the boy at Darron’s stupid party, because days after the party up until now he tried to think where and why was that stranger doing there. Like was he a friend of Darrons? Who knows him? His name?  
But then realization fucking slaps him in the face x20. this is the boy from the party.

Lances eyes narrows and he tries to copy every part of this boys face, as if his eyes were making some kind of fresh paper copy like a copy machine , scanning every trace of this boys face 

“ hey i—“ 

“So! this is Keith” Shay squeezes in, she smiles and Lance looks over, finally breaking the eye contact they were holding.

“right uh.” Lance looks back and this boy named keith is smiling. Never would he have guessed.

“I’m Lance, nice to meet you” Lance decided not to bring up the party, not right now atleast. Because the last thing he’d want more of was bad tension. This was supposed to be his day off!

“the pleasures all mine, i’m a friend of Shays” He says, his voice is like silk, it was gentle now. His words would wrap around your ears and tighten but then unwrap and trail and float around the whole room before disappearing and becoming a memory. 

Kind of like honey too, his voice stuck with you. But it was nice. sweet. He couldn’t believe this was the boy from that party— then again he didn’t take into account at how nice his voice was then too, at the moment. And how a few seconds ago how, intoxicating his simple greeting was.

Something about this boy was different. Something was off, but it didn’t make Lance uncomfortable. But there was something in this boy that lance couldn’t make out. 

How truly inviting Keith was. It was new, refreshing. Too intriguing for anyone’s good. 

But something, made him uneasy. He wondered if Keith someone had mind control powers, because he captures eyes from around the room, some look for a second and then go back to their task beforehand. Others stare longer, like they too were making a memory copy of Keith’s very being into their brain just like Lance was earlier. Someone pulls out their phone and then he hears a 

snap 

he doesn’t think about it much.

Lance looks down at his phone— quickly existing safari and leaving his investigation of the new celebrity for a later time.Shay and Hunk are chattering about some none-sense and he could tell Keith looks around the room, He shifts in his seat but he can’t make out if the boy is nervous or just adjusting himself. Shay takes her jacket off and she fans herself.

Lance looks back over at Keith, he wants to make eye contact with him. So he clears his throat.

“soo, your friends with shay? How long?”

Keith looks back over, Lance angles his head and peaks over Keith’s shoulder to see he was looking over at Vanessa, who was staring back. Her lips were parted and soon she looks over at Lance and she stumbles back and bumps into her co-worker. She turns and frantically whispers something that Lance can’t hear but its okay because Keith had started to talk.

“we met when we were in high school, um she was a senior and i was a junior”

“ohh, for a while huh? how old are you?”

“23, and you?” Keith smiles and he rests his elbow on the table and probs his head on his hand. 

“old enough” He jokes, he throws a flirty smile at him as well.

Keith laughs gently in response. Not genuinely. And when keith opened his eyes from his terrible fake laugh, he narrowed his eyes and scowled. Lance kinda drops his smile and looks away, but does it as so it doesn’t seem like he was intimated. But he feels like needles pierced his chest and looking over at a the window would release him of the feeling. It isn’t long before Keith speaks again.

“You’re in college?” 

Lance looks over again, he doesn’t want to but he forces his body to work with him.  
“yeah, i’m taking art and some other boring stuff “ Lance laughs, but behind his laugh he wasn’t amused. Infact hes cautious, sections what he’s going to say quicker.

In fact something Keith now triggered a flight or fight instinct. The gentle tone of Keith’s voice had now became alarmingly dangerous in Lances brain in a matter of 7 seconds.

“cool..”

Shay quickly stands up, chair scraps against the floor. Her jacket shifts and her sleeves touch the floor but she doesn’t care for it.

“i’m going to order something what do you guys want?”

“just get me something to wake me up” Keith says, he smiles at her warmly.

Lance drops his look from Keith, and then looks over at the shy barista then at shay— who’s eyes are already on him. 

Lance cocks his head back at the girl while smiling.   
“order from her, oh and give her my number hunk”

Hunk frowns. Lance knows he’ll do it— so does hunk— so he doesn’t question it or even hesitate. But he keeps the mild irritated yet familiar look when Lance is planning to do something not that great.

Shay doesn’t question it and she walks towards the barista and Hunk follows, they chat but Lance doesn’t keep up. 

The atmosphere quickly spikes up.

“so, Lance...”

Lance looks over at Keith, confused .

“I hear you’re a little player boy hm”

Lance’s lips spread apart. He doesn’t know how to respond because it’s not something he’s usually asked, in fact something he’s never been asked.

“....”

“thought so. listen. i don’t like you. but i’m here for Shay’s sake. I suggest you and your little friend make your intentions clear. especially Hunk. because i’ll be dammed if—“

Anger quickly boils up in Lances blood. how dare he accuse Hunk of ill intentions. In fact how dare he believe Hunk would ever. So his cluster of thoughts shoved in his brain all burst out. All words he managed to filter burst out. 

“who the fuck do you think he is? Hunk would never fucking do a thi-“

“I don’t fucking know that. Shay Doesn’t fucking know that—“

“I fucking know that. Don’t fucking talk about Hunk like that because he is too much of a good person to ever disrespect so—“

Keith laughs dryly, he laughs bitterly, unconvinced. His eyes are narrowed, hands clenched together, Lance wasn’t any better. His nails dug into the chair, and he had leaned over gradually. In fact they were seated much closer than before. Both of their shoulders tensed.

“And who are you to take into a account huh? you fucking sleep around and mess with people what makes Hunk any different.”

Lance grits his teeth. Because of Lance’s poor reputation he isn’t surprised why Keith would think hunk is the same. But Hunk ISNT. 

“Don’t compare Hunk to me. Hunk is a genuine person, Don’t let my mistakes reflect onto Hunk.”

Keith smirks and huffs, he crosses his arms and inches his face closer.

“If he was so great we wouldn’t be friends with a scum like you. people like you disgust me. go to hell”

Lance stands up, his chair falls back. Keith watches him closely, not letting any of his movements go unnoticed. He feels every emotion bubble inside him. Feels the anger of being disrespected, anger of having someone dear to him be disrespected. Sadness and jealousy and disgust and everything drags more of his energy. 

red birds fly away from the tree they were perched on, a loud sound must of spooked them. They take off and leave behind everything. 

take me with you. 

take me with you. 

TAKE ME WITH YOU.

Lance hasn’t cried in a while, but the words that Keith spat were like poison. They burned, He doesn’t know why and maybe that’s what frustrates him more. Keith words poked every nerve, yet instead of setting him off it makes every inch of his being buckle, collapse. Give in. 

Birds are no longer there perched. 

“I’ll be there. don’t fucking worry. and when i do, i’ll drag your ass down with me bitch.”

Lance stomps over the tipped over chair and he goes to leave, but he has to walk around keith and walk past him. But before, he stops on Keith’s right. 

“for the record, Hunk is far from being like me....” Lance stares down at the floor. He stares at the black bag with ‘CAMERA K 23’ printed in red stitches near the bottom, sitting next to keith’s feet. He already feels hisbeyes burning. So he spits back “people like YOU disgust me most.. get to know someone before judging them.. guess we have being disgusted in eachother in common” 

it’s the last thing Lance spits out before rushing out, He hears Hunk and Shay calling after him and he lets the glass door close behind him and he gradually picks up the speed before sprinting out of the area. He calls for an Uber and once he gets in it safely does he rest is body. 

He learned one thing from today 

He hates Keith.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi guys! how are you? stay safe and stay INSIDE. Hope u enjoy! it’s like 7:44 am and i haven’t slept in like 28 hours.

**Author's Note:**

> hi mami, i hoped you enjoyed that. Seriously let me know if you guys want more. I’m down to write more and with this whole, corona virus thing. It’s given me a chance to write this thing, Umm there might be spelling mistakes but i’ve reread this thing so many times that i can’t catch any more, my eyes are about to JUMP out of my sockets seriously. ughh, okay. bye ):  
> Leave comments! And kudos would be most appreciated! mwah


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